Family-owned whisky firm Hunter Laing & Co have been given the green light to build a new £8 million distillery and visitor centre on Islay.

The Glasgow-based company said work on Ardnahoe distillery is expected to begin in November with first production from the stills forecast for early 2018.

Hunter Laing & Co, set up by Andrew and Scott Laing, along with their father Stewart in 2013, is already a specialist whisky blender and bottler distributing whisky to 65 markets globally.

Stewart Laing spent 50 years of his career in the Scotch whisky industry, first as a blender at Bruichladdich distillery on Islay before going on to join the family's whisky wholesale and export business.

The new distillery, which marks a third generation venture in the whisky industry for the Laing family, will be housed on a four acre site at Ardnahoe, on the north east coast of Islay near Port Askaig, which was purchased from Islay Estates.

The distillery will be the ninth on the island and the first to be built since Kilchoman in 2005.

It will draw water from the nearby Ardnahoe Loch and is expected to produce around 200,000 litres of alcohol in the first year.

Hunter Laing & Co director, Scott Laing, said: “Our father spent time on Islay early in his career while working for a brief spell at Bruichladdich.

“He has always had a natural affinity with the island and we’re all fans of the peaty style of whisky it is renowned for so it’s wonderful to be able to build a distillery on the island.”